World Surf League releases damningly negative smear of Filipe Toledo’s Pipeline ability ahead of contest resumption: “There has been room for improvement when it comes to surfing heavy barrels.”

Wall of Positive Noise coming down?

I have spent the day traveling and may not be in the very best state of mind, or at least the sharpest, but I think I might have just spotted the very first crack in the World Surf League’s vaunted Wall of Positive Noise.

And any surf fan, worth her salt, is well aware of The Wall. Not one negative thing escapes the mouth, or fingers, of World Surf League broadcasters, copy writers, employees even if it means uttering, or writing, absolute absurdity.

Utter saccharine nonsense.

But look here. I slumped down, minutes ago, at my computer trying to piece out when the Billabong Pipeline Pro will run once more and accidentally stumbled across Six Big Heats To Watch When The Billabong Pro Pipeline Resumes on the lightly trafficked worldsurfleague.com.

Being not in the very best state of mind, or sharpest, I accidentally clicked and skimmed Kelly Slater vs. Jake Marshall, Tati Weston-Webb vs. Moana Jones Wong, Zeke Lau vs. Seth Moniz, Sally Fitzgibbons vs. Malia Manuel before nearly falling off my stool at Filipe Toledo vs. Ivan Florence.

Shall we read together?

It’s no secret that Pipeline is not Filipe Toledo’s strongest venue on Tour. While he’s arguably the fastest, most exciting surfer in the world in high-performance waves, there has been room for improvement when it comes to surfing heavy barrels like Pipe.

Though in his Opening Round heat on Day 1, Toledo looked comfortable, sending it on some hollow, draining waves. But he’s going to have his work cut out for him in Heat 9 of the Round of 32, where he’s up against Wildcard and Pipe local Ivan Florence.

Ivan, John John’s younger brother, looks so comfortable and smooth at Pipe, that there were justifiable comparisons made of him to Pipeline Pioneer and style master Gerry Lopez. Without the pressure of competing for qualification points, he’s going to be a hard adversary for Toledo, the 2021 World Title runner-up to overcome.

It’s no secret that Pipeline is not Filipe Toledo’s strongest venue on Tour?

There has been room for improvement when it comes to surfing heavy barrels?

These statements being released by the WSL is damning.

Absolutely damning.

No?